More Than 1,200 Earthquakes Around Yellowstone Supervolcano Recorded in Six Weeks

It all started around June 12th when a tremendous increase of earthquake activity started occurring in Yellowstone Park. This may not sound like a big deal except for lurking under the ground around this swarm of earthquakes is the Yellowstone Supervolcano.

This may not sound like a big deal except for lurking under the ground around this swarm of earthquakes is the Yellowstone Supervolcano.

The Yellowstone Supervolcano is nothing to take lightly because if it erupted, it would be a potential extinction level from hundreds of cubic miles of ash, rock and lava would be blasted into the atmosphere.

90% of the people within 600 miles of the event would die and most of the United States would become inhabitable.

The rest of the globe, especially the northern hemisphere would experience a 20-degree drop in temperatures and undergo global cooling that will kill off most of the crops causing famines.

If you live within 100 miles of the supervolcano, you should have a plan in case it blows, nothing will survive unless it’s underground with a life support system.

So far it hasn’t erupted, so let’s hope the streak of luck will hold out for a long time.

Researchers have recorded more than 1,200 earthquakes at Yellowstone National Park, part of an ongoing earthquake swarm now in its sixth week.

Seismologists from the University of Utah have been monitoring the swarm since it first began on June 12, on the western edge of the national park. As of as of 9:45 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) on Wednesday, the University of Utah Seismograph Stations (UUSS) had recorded 1,284 events, the largest being magnitude 4.4.

Despite the activity, experts believe the earthquakes are unlikely to cause a supervolcano eruption—an event often mistakenly believed to be catastrophic; the most likely scenario would be a lava flow with minimal direct effect outside the national park.

Almost 60 percent of the earthquakes recorded (764 events) were in the magnitude 0 range or lower, which is considered a small event that can only be recorded with sophisticated instruments used in earthquake monitoring.

Only seven events were in the magnitude 3 range, with one measuring 3.6 magnitude recorded on Tuesday. Another 105 earthquakes were in the magnitude 2 range, and 407 earthquakes in the magnitude 1 range, according to the university’s latest report.

While increased seismic activity is usually a sign of volcanic eruption, Jamie Farrell, research professor at the university, told Newsweek in June that the ongoing event is unlikely to lead to an eruption as earthquake swarms are a common event in Yellowstone.

“When a volcano starts ‘acting up’ prior to an eruption, one of the typical signs is increased seismicity. However, it is usually just one of the signs of an impending eruption. Other signs include, large changes in surface deformation, changes to the hydrothermal system and changes in gas output. We monitor for all these things at Yellowstone,” he said.